


laughin' loud on a carnival ride

by el_em_en_oh_pee



Series: tumblr "drabbles" [9]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Disguise, First Kiss, M/M, county fair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7533262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_em_en_oh_pee/pseuds/el_em_en_oh_pee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry looks around the fairground. They’ve already done the putt-putt - Harry got tripped up by the windmill, but Niall almost lost his ball at the clown hole because he didn’t want to look straight at it - and the zipper and the gravitron and the spinning teacups. The Ferris wheel looms, past the inflatable slides and the yo-yo, and he wants to go to that, he does, but - Ferris wheels are always romantic in the movies, and Harry isn’t sure that Niall wants romantic from this. “Funnel cakes?” he suggests, instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	laughin' loud on a carnival ride

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt "narry first kiss"; crossposted from tumblr.

“So,” Niall says. He pauses to pinch a massive hunk of candy floss off of the stick and stuff it in his mouth, then licks his fingers. “What do you want to do next?”

Harry looks around the fairground. They’ve already done the putt-putt - Harry got tripped up by the windmill, but Niall almost lost his ball at the clown hole because he didn’t want to look straight at it - and the zipper and the gravitron and the spinning teacups. The Ferris wheel looms, past the inflatable slides and the yo-yo, and he wants to go to that, he does, but - Ferris wheels are always romantic in the movies, and Harry isn’t sure that Niall wants romantic from this. “Funnel cakes?” he suggests, instead.

“Yeah,” says Niall. “Oooh, and sausages. Big juicy sausages. Isn’t there an Italian sausage truck somewhere?”

“If you want a sausage,” Harry says, “I’ve got one in my pants.” He’s serious, actually, but he says it like he’s joking, because that’s probably what Niall expects. 

“I’ll keep that in mind for afters,” Niall says, straight-faced and deadpan in a way that means Harry can’t tell exactly how much he’s joking.

They queue up for funnel cakes and sausages. Harry scratches under his wig while they wait. It’s summer in America, so he’s sweating under the woven bit clinging to his hair, but they actually put a lot of work into their disguises because Niall fancied trying out a traveling fair and Harry didn’t want to get seen. The others are off shopping somewhere, or maybe hiding out in a bar because now that Liam’s had his birthday, they’re all legal now, but Harry likes being in the sweltering summer sun in some state - Texas? Oklahoma? Colorado? Everything starts blending together by the end of August, especially now that they have a few days between each show - where the grass is dry and beat flat and dusty by thousands of feet tramping from dilapidated ride to dilapidated ride. 

It’s exhilarating, is what it is. “Bet if we do the Ferris wheel, we could see the hotel from here,” he tells Niall, even though he’s fairly certain they’re far enough out of the city that it’s impossible to do so.

“Yeah?” says Niall. “I was thinking of doing the funhouse after we eat.”

That sounds good, too. Harry is always down for fun. “I’m going to Instagram us looking in the mirrors,” he warns Niall.

“Vine us going through that spinny tunnel thing, too,” Niall suggests. “I could try to starfish out and go all the way around in a circle.”

“Sick,” says Harry, approvingly, so they scarf their sausage sandwiches and funnel cakes down with cokes (the cups have Taylor’s face on the side, which is both hilarious and a little bittersweet, but then again, Harry’s also heard a country band in the covered tent in the middle of the fairground cover three of their songs while they were waiting in line for the bumper cars), because with their disguises they can’t get away with using their fame to order beers.

Niall grabs Harry’s wrist with a greasy hand when they’re done and drags him to the funhouse. “Oh, look,” he says, as they reach it and queue up behind the gate. “We’re right next to the Tunnel of Love.”

“We should go on that next,” Harry says, trying to sound as offhand as Niall does.

“Awww, Haz,” Niall says, pursing his lips and batting his eyes. He pauses. “Brad, I mean.” Is Brad Harry’s undercover name? He’s forgot, honestly. No matter. “Are you trying to romance me?”

What was Niall’s undercover name? “Um,” Harry says. “Steve.” That’s probably not it - almost certainly not it, given the way Niall is now laughing at him. “Do you want to be romanced?”

“Could be fun,” says Niall. “Us American lads, being romanced at the county fair. Very appropriate.”

“Isn’t this a conservative state?” Harry asks.

“So?” Niall shrugs. “I’m not a conservative boy.”

Interesting.

The queue moves quickly. The funhouse is a basic sort, nothing like the one in Grease. Harry knows intimately precisely what the funhouse in Grease is like. Louis used to make them watch it at least once a month, until Liam hid the disc during their last tour and told him not to buy a new one. 

This one’s got a tilty floor they have to walk past, and those weird rubber things sticking from floor to ceiling to push through, and then they’re at the mirrors. Harry takes about thirty pictures to sort through for Instagram, after they’re safely out of the line of fire and fans, and then takes some more to snapchat to Louis and Liam and Zayn. “I’m glad we’re doing this,” he tells Niall, quietly, as they stand in front of the moving mirror and watch as their bodies bulge and contort in the glass. 

“Me, too,” Niall says. He reaches over, drapes an arm around Harry to squeeze his shoulders, and then lets it fall down his back. Harry shivers a little, already dreading missing the press of Niall’s hand on his back. But Niall slips his fingers into Harry’s back pocket instead. “Now what’s that you were saying about romancing?”

Harry looks over at Niall, startled. “Really?”

“American boys at a county fair,” Niall says, shrugging, so - okay. 

“Tunnel’s next,” Harry says, tugging Niall on.

“Tunnel of love?” Niall asks.

“Could be,” says Harry, and then they’re on the spinning exit to the funhouse.

“Thought you were going to vine me,” says Niall. “Spinning around on this.”

“That was a great idea,” Harry tells him. “I’ve got a better one, though." 

"Yeah?” Niall asks. He looks up at Harry through the brim of his cap. They’d been concerned that a snapback would be predictable for a surprise, but Lou went and put fake individual eyelashes on Niall’s upper lip like sprouting mustache hairs and tucked a matted wig underneath the cap and now he just looks like a farm boy or something in his vest top and dirty jeans and scuffed work boots, with a plaid shirt knotted around his waist. He’s still Niall like this, though, even with his Steve(?) accent and brown-eyed contacts; he’s got his laugh and his secret band-smile and those are so quintessentially Niall that it makes Harry’s heart hurt, a little. 

“Yeah,” Harry says, swallowing a little. He reaches around, tugs Niall in by his belt loops, struggling to stay upright even though the spinning tunnel is twisting them higher and higher up the sides.

Kissing Niall - gently, just a brush of lips on lips - makes his stomach swoop like the twisting of the exit tunnel, but watching Niall smile when he pulls away feels like smashing his favorite song in front of a sold-out stadium.

**Author's Note:**

> [original post](http://dulosis.tumblr.com/post/71606037583/narry-first-kiss)


End file.
